Blog Post Categories
- Dire Straits/ Mark Knopfler live pictures and videos (16)
- Guitar in general (60)
- Vintage guitars (29)
- Mark Knopfler gear (88)
- Misc (59)
- MK guitar style and licks (69)
- Recording (15)
- Understanding music (23)
Pages
- Contents – List of all articles
- Forum
- What is a blog and how can I use it most efficiently
- The idea behind this blog
- Support this site
- Poll: Wishes for future articles
- Gear on all songs for all albums – WIKI
- Privacy policy
- Live Chat
- Contact
Recent Forum Posts
-
Bridge state/height
posted in forum Gear by thomasfloss on 30. January 2012 at 20:00
-
Recommended gear for the MK style
posted in forum Gear by Ingo on 29. January 2012 at 16:41
-
Welche Gitarre und Amp fuer Anfaenger und Knopfler-Sound?
posted in forum Deutsches Forum - German forum by markus on 26. December 2011 at 18:38
-
Gitarre & Amp mit Knopfler-Sound für Anfänger
posted in forum Deutsches Forum - German forum by markus on 26. December 2011 at 18:20
-
St. Mark's DSP Effects Pickups Debuted At The Musikmesse Frankfurt Show
posted in forum General Guitar discussion by littlemustache on 19. November 2011 at 15:50
Recent Comments
- The VFS-1 – New pick-up for our Schecter-style pickguards (9)
- Andrew MacAskill: Hi Ingo, As a small token of my thanks for all of your hard work providing such...
- National Style-O 1932 and 1936 – Double Power (2)
- Installing a Highlander iP-1X – The best pick-up for the National resonator guitar (8)
- Dire Straits Water of Love guitar tutorial (4)
- Ingo: There is so little gain on the amp so that it is not louder than my talking (the amp was a...
- Jean-Francois: very nice article and playing Ingo, well, as always
I know it wasn’t your... - Ingo: The reel to reel – a 1/2″ Teac 80-8 made of wood and steel and only little...
- Fletch: Another wonderful instructional vid Ingo, many thanks. Do you ever use that reel to reel...
- Dire Straits Down to the Waterline explained: licks – chords – solo – no tabs (9)
- Alain: Ingo, thank so much for this lesson which give us a really knowledge of MK technics and...
- Mark Knopfler Signature Strat with lipstick pickups played on Forever Young (duet with Bob Dylan) (3)
Archives
- February 2012
- January 2012
- December 2011
- November 2011
- October 2011
- September 2011
- August 2011
- July 2011
- June 2011
- May 2011
- April 2011
- March 2011
- February 2011
- January 2011
- December 2010
- November 2010
- October 2010
- September 2010
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
Links
Meta
Tag cloud
TOP 15 Popular Articles
- Guitar refinishing – nitro vs poly and how to remove a polyester finish
- Mark Knopfler’s Music Man HD 130 212 guitar amp
- Forum
- Mark Knopfler’s Sultans of Swing amp – The brown Fender Vibrolux
- Music Man Guitar Amps
- Mark Knopfler’s Amp and Effect Settings on the On Every Street tour
- Red – redder – the reddest: fiesta, dakota, candy apple, hot rod, and more Fender colours
- The King of Clean – Mark Knopfler’s Tone King Imperial amp – Hand-built vintage technology and sound
- Trying to recreate that Sultans of Swing sound - The gear I used on the Puresolo competition.
- New site shop launched
- How to get that Sultans of Swing Sound - Mark Knopfler played 08 strings?
- Mark Knopfler’s amp settings on Fender Hot Rod Deluxe (Boom like that promo, Germany 2004)
- The Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer compressor – Did Mark Knopfler really use it?
- Mark Knopfler’s 1938 Gibson Advanced Jumbo acoustic guitar
- Ernie Ball volume pedal modification to make the taper like it was with the old Allen Bradley poti
Top Comment Authors
- Ingo (297)
- Jean-François (116)
- Jeff - Anthony (36)
- Dermot O'Reilly (28)
- Erik (21)
- TheWizzard29 (21)
- Knopfleberg (20)
- zach (20)
- Philipp (19)
- Fletch (17)
- Morten (17)
- John (14)
- Jim (13)
- Ryan T. (11)
- thomas (11)
- liftedcj7on44s (10)
- Alex Mircica (9)
- danny (9)
- Jakehadlee (9)
- jude (9)
- Eduard (8)
- Antonio (7)
- Chris (7)
- Eric (7)
- Jeff (7)
Dire Straits Down to the Waterline explained: licks – chords – solo – no tabs
Posted in: Easy stuff for beginners,MK guitar style and licks,Understanding music by Ingo on July 09, 2009
Summer is here and with it my summer holidays, so the ideal opportunity for some more song tutorials here in my Mark Knopfler guitar blog. This time I will explain the song Down to the Waterline – the first song on the first Dire Straits CD (1978).
Down to the waterline is surely another highlight of early Dire Straits. It is one of the oldest Mark Knopfler songs, one of 5 songs included on the demo tape Dire Straits recorded in summer 1977. It is the opener of the first album and was planned (however never released) as a second single, following the band’s first single success Sultans of Swing.
It is in the key of Bm and features many guitar licks and stuff that is typical for this key but also a lot of surprises like some unusual chord changes in the middle solo or some chromatic notes.
I am explaining the whole song in a youtube video or – to be precise – in two parts since youtube allows only clips up to 10 minutes. I am showing the song as I would play it – which is a mixture of the studio or some live versions. As always, it is not about the most accurate transcription of a particular version, but about the idea behind those licks, chords and solos.
Video Part 1 (Intro, verses, chords, first solos)
Video Part 2 (middle and last solo)
Knopfler probably played his Fender Strat S.-No. 80470 on the CD version of this track, possibly over a Fender Twin and/or his brown Fender Vibrolux amp. Besides some reverb and slight distortion from the amp, the guitar sound is compressed, possibly by the Dan Armstrong Orange Squeezer. However, noone knows for sure about the gear actually used on the first two CDs, and there is a lot of rumour around.
Some notes on the gear I used for this video
self-built clone of the Mark Knopfler Fender Strat S.-No. 80470 (mainly of Fender parts) , into Morley Volume pedal, into MXR analog delay, into Music Man HD 212 amp
recorded by the mic of a digi cam.
"Buy me a beer" - donate for the site via PayPal. Or buy a backing track in my online shop :)
Ingo
Great explanation. I’ve been working on this song recently and your video filled in a few missing pieces. Thanks for providing this fantastic resource.
John
Comment by John — 11. July 2009 @ 10:04
Awesome job on the Down to the Waterline instruction… Thank you
Comment by m — 16. August 2009 @ 19:04
Thanks so much Ingo, great lesson!
Prost!
Comment by RobGordon — 30. August 2009 @ 14:28
Where did you find out some of the information about which guitar he played on the track – I’d seen him interviewed on BBC before in his guitar room and he must’ve had 40 guitars there — hard to track which he used without video or specific recording engineer notes.
Comment by Dave Allen — 15. January 2010 @ 16:11
In 1978 he did not have too many guitars…
Comment by Ingo — 16. January 2010 @ 15:37
Ingo,
That is an awesome strat clone and great playing. What colour red is the clone guitar. Also what pickups are installed in the guitar?
Thanks,
Chris
Comment by Chris — 13. November 2010 @ 08:12
Hi Chris, that guitar is just a part-o-caster, some parts are Fender, some are from a Japanasese guitar from the 70ies, the red is from a spraying can (nitro) but not exactly the colour I wanted it to have, the PUs are Fender 57/62 from the 80ies, from a JV Squier.
Comment by Ingo — 13. November 2010 @ 09:31
[...] playing but one that explains how to play a particular song again, similar to the ones I did about Down to the Waterline some time ago. As Down to the Waterline is the first song of Dire Straits’ first album, I [...]
Pingback by Dire Straits Water of Love guitar tutorial | Mark Knopfler Guitar / More Knowledge about the guitar — 27. January 2012 @ 15:00
Ingo, thank so much for this lesson which give us a really knowledge of MK technics and give us the felling to be less lost un this pièce of music.
Thanks a lot. Alain
Comment by Alain — 31. January 2012 @ 06:58